The Walking Dead: 10 Times Rick Was Really The Villain

10. Four Walls And A Roof (Season 5) – His Savage Slaying Of The Surviving Termites In Father Gabriel’s Church

Let’s get one thing straight: the Termites were not good people. Killing people to cannibalise their flesh is never right, zombie apocalypse or not. That said, they were desperate people driven to their wicked ways by their own mistreatment at the hands of others.

That’s not to say that they deserved a second chance. They tried to kill Rick and his group, ate one of Bob’s legs and likely would’ve eaten anybody else that crossed their paths had Rick let them live.

Really, it’s not so much the fact that Rick killed Gareth and the other surviving Termites – they definitely had it coming – but rather the way he went about it. Opting to brutally hack and bludgeon them to death so as not to waste bullets on them is pretty savage. Even Maggie, Glenn, Tara and Tyreese who have seen and partaken in a fair amount of bloodshed by this point look horrified at what’s going on.

It’s not like Rick just dispatched Gareth with a quick machete chop to the head either – he full on hacked up his body and seemed to take quite a bit of pleasure in the act too. Not to mention all of this took place on hallowed ground.

Was Rick killing the Termites justified? Sure. Was it overkill? Definitely.